Guides › AI copyright by country
Who owns AI-generated game assets in South Korea? (2026)
Short answer: Purely AI-generated output: Not protected. The Korea Copyright Commission's guide (law as of June 2025) says output created mechanically by generative AI is not a copyrighted work and can't be registered; a GenAI-assisted work with identifiable human creative contribution (your own input work, creative edits, or creative selection and arrangement) can be.
Checked 2026-10-15 · verification: primary. Not legal advice.
What the sources say
"Since a work must express human ideas or emotions, an output created mechanically by GenAI rather than a human does not qualify as a copyrighted work."
"Outputs based on human prompts that do not exhibit human creative contribution (hereinafter, “autonomous outputs”) do not constitute works"
What it means for your game
Describe the AI output, the process and your human expression when registering.
Copyright is separate from the tool licence. A tool can let you sell its output even where nobody owns copyright in it, and a free tier can forbid commercial use even where you would own it. Check both: commercial use by tool.
FAQ
Can I copyright AI-generated game art in South Korea?
Purely AI-generated output: not protected. The Korea Copyright Commission's guide (law as of June 2025) says output created mechanically by generative AI is not a copyrighted work and can't be registered; a GenAI-assisted work with identifiable human creative contribution (your own input work, creative edits, or creative selection and arrangement) can be.
What should game developers in South Korea do?
Describe the AI output, the process and your human expression when registering.
Does this change whether I can sell AI assets in South Korea?
Copyright decides whether others can copy your assets. Whether you may sell them depends on the tool's licence for the plan you used; see our commercial-use pages.
Sources
Other countries: United States · United Kingdom · European Union · Japan · China · Canada · India
Cite this page
Asset Forge Index, "Who owns AI-generated game assets in South Korea", https://assetforgeindex.com/copyright/south-korea, checked 2026-10-15. Data is free to reuse with a link. Machine-readable versions are listed in llms.txt.
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